ArticleJournal of travel medicine2020
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in commercial passenger aircraft and cruise ship wastewater: a surveillance tool for assessing the presence of COVID-19 infected travellers.
Article in Journal of travel medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- SARS-CoV-2 shedding sources in wastewater and implications for wastewater-based epidemiology.Journal of hazardous materials · 2022Pooled it
- Wastewater surveillance to infer COVID-19 transmission: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste: A review about virus surveillance, infectivity, and inactivation.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with aircraft travel: a systematic review.Journal of travel medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Aircraft Wastewater as a Sentinel for Transboundary Antimicrobial Resistance: An Integrated Genomic Approach.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- International Airport Wastewater as a Sentinel Site for Genomic Surveillance of Human Viruses and Bacteriophages.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Effect of nucleic acid concentration method on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 detection sensitivity in aircraft wastewater.Journal of medical microbiology · 2026Article
- Near-source wastewater surveillance as a non-invasive tool for disease detection in prisons.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- "Navigating Healthy Waters": monitoring ship wastewater as a key defense against infectious diseases-a pilot study on a Mediterranean seaport.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants using genomic surveillance: insights from aircraft wastewater and nasal swabs at Kigali International Airport, Rwanda.IJID regions · 2025Article
- Swift Realisation of Wastewater-Based SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance for Aircraft and Airports: Challenges from Sampling to Variant Detection.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Aircraft lavatory wastewater surveillance for movement of antimicrobial resistance genes: a proof-of-concept study.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 from aircraft to citywide monitoring.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Operationalizing SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring to assess traveler health in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.IJID regions · 2025Article
- Ethical Considerations for Wastewater Surveillance Conducted by the US Department of Defense.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Scoping review of infectious disease prevention, mitigation and management in passenger ships and at ports: mapping the literature to develop comprehensive and effective public health measures.Tropical medicine and health · 2025Article
- Turning analysis into action: opportunities and challenges in implementing wastewater science for public health decision-making.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Near-source wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, norovirus, influenza virus and RSV across five different sites in the UK.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Genomic surveillance of Canadian airport wastewater samples allows early detection of emerging SARS-CoV-2 lineages.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A Narrative Review of High Throughput Wastewater Sample Processing for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Challenges, Progress, and Future Opportunities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
24 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be an important source of information for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) management during and after the pandemic. Currently, governments and transportation industries around the world are developing strategies to minimize SARS-CoV-2 transmission associated with resuming activity. This study investigated the possible use of SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater surveillance from airline and cruise ship sanitation systems and its potential use as a COVID-19 public health management tool.
methodsAircraft and cruise ship wastewater samples (n = 21) were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using two virus concentration methods, adsorption-extraction by electronegative membrane (n = 13) and ultrafiltration by Amicon (n = 8), and five assays using reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and RT-droplet digital PCR (RT-ddPCR). Representative qPCR amplicons from positive samples were sequenced to confirm assay specificity.
resultsSARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in samples from both aircraft and cruise ship wastewater; however concentrations were near the assay limit of detection. The analysis of multiple replicate samples and use of multiple RT-qPCR and/or RT-ddPCR assays increased detection sensitivity and minimized false-negative results. Representative qPCR amplicons were confirmed for the correct PCR product by sequencing. However, differences in sensitivity were observed among molecular assays and concentration methods.
conclusionsThe study indicates that surveillance of wastewater from large transport vessels with their own sanitation systems has potential as a complementary data source to prioritize clinical testing and contact tracing among disembarking passengers. Importantly, sampling methods and molecular assays must be further optimized to maximize detection sensitivity. The potential for false negatives by both wastewater testing and clinical swab testing suggests that the two strategies could be employed together to maximize the probability of detecting SARS-CoV-2 infections amongst passengers.
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